Redbrick preps for 160-room hotel despite objections from Ward 8A ANC leaders

Real estate investor and developer Redbrick LMD will continue to prepare for the construction of a 160-room hotel as part of the Bridge District initiative, though Ward 8A advisory neighborhood commissioners unanimously voted in opposition of the firm’s zoning application.

At their Sept. 8 8A ANC meeting, commissioners said the absence of a community benefit agreement deterred them from giving their support to Redbrick LMD’s zoning application for parcel 7, the land zoned for the hotel. A community benefit agreement services as a legally binding contract between developers and a community that outlines the benefits a community will receive as a result of supporting a project.

“I voted against Redbrick LMD’s Zoning Application (Zoning Commission Case No. 20-22 / 24-07 regarding Parcel 7) to protect our community’s leverage and ensure that Ward 8 receives concrete, binding commitments from the developer rather than informal promises,” said 8A01 Commissioner Tom Donohue in an email statement to The Wash.

The Bridge District, a multi-phase, multi-parcel development led by Redbrick LMD, is a planned “eight-acre, seven-parcel neighborhood development with new apartments, shops, restaurants, parks, bike paths, and more,” located alongside the Anacostia River and at the base of the eastern end of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge.

If built, the hotel would be the first east of the Anacostia River in the district, Redbrick said at the ANC hearing.

Redbrick completed the first phase of the initiative in 2025 with the opening of a multifamily apartment complex, parcels 3 and 4. Construction for phase two and parcel 5 of the project, a mass timber high-rise, began earlier this year.

Phase three calls for the construction of a 160-room hotel, the first of its kind east of the Anacostia River. Of all the Bridge District land plots, Parcel 7 is positioned closest to the Anacostia metro station on Howard Street SE.

In a presentation to the 8A ANC, Redbrick LMD’s land use counsel and attorney Jeff Utz said that while a CBA is not required for approval of a zoning application to the DC Zoning Commission, Redbrick LMD is “committed to continuing its engagement with the ANC and the community.”

Redbrick LMD declined The Wash’s request for comment regarding the 8A ANC’s opposition to the existing zoning application.

“Even though you don’t have to do it, doesn’t mean you can’t do it,” said 8A ANC chair and 8A05 commissioner Jamila White according to a recording of the ANC meeting. “I think all too often, we see or have been told, ‘Trust us, we’re going to have these XY benefits that’s going to come and trickle down for the community,’ and we just don’t see that,” White added.

White said that a CBA would provide both the commission and the community an institutionalized partnership with the Bridge District. She added that at this time, there is no guarantee that the economic stimulation from the construction of the hotel will benefit historic Anacostia residents rather than solely bolstering the Navy Yard/Capitol Riverfront area.

Some residents expressed concern about overwhelming an already narrow street with multiple developments at one. “I think there’s too much for this little street,” said Anthony Williams, a Bridge District resident of one year.

Williams said that even at this stage in the Bridge District development process, there are limited parking spaces for residents. He added that, though buses quickly pass through the Bridge District neighborhood, sometimes side-swiping cars along the way, there is no dedicated bus stop. When parents pick up their children from Alfred Kiger Savoy Elementary School nearby, traffic congestion is even worse.

“I don’t like it anymore,” said Williams. “If I’d known then what I know now, I wouldn’t have moved here,” he added.

Still, the development continues.

On Sept. 14, The D.C. Zoning Commission denied the 8A ANC’s request to delay the Bridge District’s case for 30 days. They did, however, keep the case record open for the 8A ANC to submit a report into the commission’s Interactive Zoning System.

Redbrick LMD can submit its draft order until 3:00 p.m. on Sept. 30, 2026.